Immune surveillance plays a critical role against cancer and represents a very attractive therapeutic approach, especially in light of the many shortcomings of conventional surgery, radiation and chemotherapies in the management of cancer.
The human body's first line of defense against cancer is the natural killer (NK) cell, with the phenotype CD3− CD14− CD19− CD56+ CD16+ NGK2D+ CD11c+ HLA-DR− CD86− CD83−. NK cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes that actively scan the body for abnormal cells, destroying them before they can develop into actual cancer cells. As NK cells patrol the body, they interact with many types of cells using their array of activating and inhibiting surface receptors. Most cancer cells engage the NK cell's activating receptors, which triggers its natural kill response.
These findings support a rationale for develop a NK based therapy against cancer cells and culture methods to generate greater number of therapeutically competent NK cells for clinical applications, as there is still an unmet need for effective treatment and/or prevention for cancer. The present invention provides modified natural killer cells having a unique phenotype to satisfy these and other needs. The cells can be used in autologous therapy or in non-autologous therapy.